President Obama has delivered the last budget of his term. Three of the four, including this one, were submitted late, shattering the previous record for an administration. Each of the four proposed more than $1 trillion in higher taxes on hard-working families and businesses, along with trillions in new spending and borrowing instead of a real strategy for growth and jobs. And — most disappointing of all — none of the four offered a credible plan to lift the crushing burden of debt, thus committing current and future generations to diminished prosperity and a nation in decline.Although the White House claims to include $4 trillion in deficit reduction, the president’s budget actually contains virtually no credible deficit reduction at all. Under his plan, the government is projected to borrow $11.2 trillion over the next 10 years. This is roughly the same amount of debt we are expected to incur under realistic projections of current policy. The budget does not change our debt trajectory.
Instead, the president has used a series of gimmicks to create the illusion of fiscal responsibility. He exploits the winding-down of overseas combat operations to claim almost $1 trillion in “savings” over 10 years — money that was never requested by our military and was never going to be spent. Rather than propose actual spending cuts, his budget takes credit for $2 trillion in spending cuts that have already been signed into law. Further, it suggests replacing half of those cuts with a tax hike. When it comes to measuring tax rates, Pell grants and Medicare, his budget adjusts the starting line to satisfy his finish line.
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